Height is a core factor for talent promotion in volleyball, but
we question if its supremacy should be observed in training programs for
elite-level women’s volleyball. Our purpose was to analyze the height of women
volleyball players participating in the World Grand Prix (WGP) and to retrieve
information relevant for characterizing the elite-level volleyball and to inform
talent promotion programs. We analyzed 2074 players participating in the WGP
from 2004 to 2012. Descriptive statistics were calculated. One-way ANOVA was
used to verify the existence of differences in height according to ranking.
Post-hoc testing was conducted using the Scheffé test. A significance level of
.05 was established. The players’ average height was 182.5±7.6 cm. From 2008
to 2012, between 1 and 2% of the participants were under 160 cm. Differences
existed between the rankings with respect to average height (F3=15.125, p≤0.001,
η2p=0.021). Teams classified in the first four spots of the competition
presented an average height that was significantly superior to that found for
the remaining teams. Height is a relevant factor for achieving elite-level women’s
volleyball. However, there is evidence that shorter players still have an
important role to play at this level. Shorter players may be relevant for
enhancing the quality of training sessions and on performing specific tasks
during preparation; hence, they might be decisive in potentiating the quality of
the players that actually get to enter the court.

In sports, there is considerable interest in the early identification of the
characteristics of talent, promoting a selection of the players that are best
fitted to achieve elite-level sport1,2,3. This implies knowing which factors
present greater weight for future success in a given sport4,5. According to
Abbott and Collins6, those factors should present a stable and predictable
development with time; otherwise, any effort to proceed to talent promotion
based on those factors would result ineffective. In volleyball, height is
usually included as a main factor of talent7, as it usually is a stable measure
and allows differentiating those attaining high-level and those not achieves
such elite-level performances.

Indeed, height is usually considered one of the core factors for achieving
elite-level performance in volleyball8,9, and a development profile above the
average may be an indicator of sports talent10. In fact, in under-17 girl
Brazilian players, height was the main morphological determinant to achieve
elite level performance, while somatotype and vertical jump ability did not
allow distinguishing between athletes from the national team and from a state
team1. At the elite level, the Cuban women teams competing in the Olympic Games
in 1992, 1996 and 2000 showed an average height of 181.6 cm7. Analyzing women
volleyball players from the Greek National League A1 (n=79) and A2 (n=84)
divisions, Malousaris et al.8 found a body height ranging from 161 cm to 194 cm,
with a mean value of 177.1±6.5 cm. The A1 players (179.6±5.8 cm) were
significantly taller than the A2 players (174.7±6.2 cm), in average 4.9 cm. And
a trend towards increasing height has been verified in men’s volleyball11.

Therefore, although the concept of talent relies on multiple factors and
presents enormous complexity of analysis, advising caution when using
uni-dimensional models2,6,12,13, height seems to emerge as a somewhat nuclear
concept for talent in volleyball. In their review paper, Lidor and Ziv14 found
that young female volleyball players already tend to be taller, in average, than
their peers in the standard population; furthermore, they seem to be taller than
athletes from many other sports. The authors concluded that in female adolescent
players, height was correlated to game performance. Analyzing girls from the
Brazilian under-17 national volleyball team, Cabral et al.1 reported an average
height of 181.6±6.1 cm. In the same study, players from the state team of Rio
Grande do Norte were, in average, 170.5±8.0 cm tall. This difference hints that
height might be differentially weighted according to the level of practice.

Our purpose was to analyze the height of women volleyball players participating
in the World Grand Prix (WGP) and to retrieve information relevant for
characterizing the elite-level volleyball, and also to inform talent promotion
programs. The WGP is a major international volleyball competition for women. It
is held each year and only the best world-level national teams are allowed to
participate. Therefore, this competition is representative of women’s
elite-level volleyball.

2.
Methods

We analyzed the height of women volleyball players who have participated in the
FIVB (Fédération Internationale de Volley-Ball) WGP from 2004 to 2012. Data
were collected from the FIVB online platform (www.fivb.org), including values
from a total of 2074 participants. The National Teams afford the FIVB with such
information, and height is measured standing without any footwear. Each team
presents a minimum of twelve and a maximum of twenty players in the roster.
Descriptive statistics were calculated, both in absolute terms and also per year
and classification. Teams were divided into four groups according to their
ranking in the competition: 1st to 4th ranked teams in group one, 5th to 8th in
group two, 9th to 12th in group three, and 13th to 16th in group four. It should
be noted that group four only exists since 2011, when the competition was
extended to sixteen teams; before 2011, only twelve teams were granted access to
this competition. One-way ANOVA was used to verify the existence of differences
in height according to ranking. Post-hoc testing was conducted using the
Scheffé test. A significance level of .05 was established.

3.
Results

The players’ average height was 182.5±7.6 cm, with a minimum registered
height of 155 cm and a maximum of 204 cm. Table 1 presents the average height
(mean±SD) across the years:

Table
1. Average height (mean±SD) per year

Figure 1 provides a visual picture of the evolution of height from 2004 to 2012.

Figure
1. Evolution of the mean height of women volleyball players in the World
Grand Prix from 2004 to 2012

Overall, height has been maintaining a steady state between around 182 cm and
183.5 cm. In table 2, data concerning the distribution of height categories
across the years is presented, both in absolute values and in percentage.

Table
2. Distribution of height (cm) across the years

We further explored whether there were differences in final ranking attributable
to height. Table 3 presents the data according to final ranking in the
competition.

Table
3. Average height (mean±SD) according to ranking in the competition

The differences between the groups were significant (F3=15.125, p≤0.001,
η2p=0.021). Post-hoc tests revealed the existence of significant
differences between Group 1 and Groups 2 (p=0.040), 3 (p≤0.001), and 4 (p≤0.001).
Group 2 also presented significant differences with respect to Groups 3
(p=0.029) and 4 (p=0.029). Differences between groups 3 and 4 were not
significant.

4.
Discussion and conclusions

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the role of height in women’s
elite-level volleyball, providing data relevant both for characterization of
this population and for talent promotion programs.

The players’ average height was 182.5±7.6 cm, above the value shown for Cuban
teams7 and clearly superior to the values found for players of the Greek A1
division8 by a margin of 3 cm. This reveals that height is an important factor
for playing in elite-level women’s volleyball. However, this also means that
players with heights ranging from 175.0 cm to 190.1 cm fall within the scope of
one standard deviation. The teams’ average height has been kept relatively
constant over the years, ranging from 181.9 cm in 2011 to 183.5 cm in 2007. This
difference of only 1.6 cm between these two extreme values implies that there is
a strong stability with respect to the teams’ average height. Therefore, it
seems that in women the game of volleyball promotes an ideal average height that
hasn’t been increasing in the last eight years. This strongly suggests that
other factors are more relevant for achieving elite-level performances than
height alone, corroborating the position of Lidor and Ziv14.

Analysis of the distribution of height across the years provides further
relevant data. Namely, from 2008 to 2012, between 1 and 2% of the participants
were fewer than 160 cm. On the other end of the spectrum, there are usually less
than 1% of participants over 201 cm. The bulk of the participants present
heights between 176-190 cm (68.9%), but this leaves more than 30% of vacancies
for shorter or taller players. Effectively, in average 7.9% of the players in
this competition is under 170 cm, while this value rises up to 17.1% if we
consider the players until 175 cm tall. Therefore, 2 out of 12 players
participating in the WGP fall short of 175 cm. Conversely, only an average of
13.3% players each year surpasses 190 cm. As a consequence, one must understand
that volleyball requires heterogeneity of player profiles to face the demands of
women’s elite-level competition8. Thus, height is but one factor that
contributes to achieving such levels of performance, but it is neither
sufficient nor strictly necessary in an individual basis, in line with the
proposed multidimensional nature of talent13,15.

Height was, however, a differentiating factor of the teams’ final ranking in
the competition. One-way ANOVA revealed the existence of differences between the
rankings with respect to average height. Namely, teams classified in the first
four spots of the competition presented an average height that was significantly
superior to that found for the remaining teams. Furthermore, teams classified in
the 5th to 8th spots were also significantly taller than teams positioned in the
lower ends of the competition. There were no significant differences in average
height between teams positioned 9th to 12th and 13th to 16th. It is possible to
conclude that height becomes more relevant if a national team aims for
classifying amongst the eight best ranked in the world, and even more so if the
goal is to be ranked 1st to 4th. The same effect was verified in the Greek
National Leagues, where the players acting in the A1 division were circa 5 cm
taller than players of the A2 division8, and in Brazilian under-17 players,
where national team players were taller than state team players1. Nonetheless,
the difference in average height between the first four ranked teams and the
last four ranked teams represents just 3.2 cm, and many factors besides height
might contribute to explain such differences in performance. In their study with
handball players, Lidor et al.12 even found that height did not allow
distinguishing selected and non-selected players.

In sum, our study has shown that height is a relevant factor for achieving
elite-level women’s volleyball, and should therefore be weighted in any talent
promotion program, as had been previously shown for youth girls’ volleyball1
and also for youth boys’ competitions5. Indeed, volleyball players that stand
out with respect to their peers are already taller during adolescence14.
Nonetheless, our data also provide clear evidence that height is but one factor
needed to play at the highest level, and teams actually prefer to have a balance
of taller and shorter players. It strongly emerges that height cannot be an
elimination factor in any talent promotion programs, since nearly 20% of the
players acting at elite-level competitions fall short of 176 cm. Indeed, Abbott
and Collins15 specifically referred to height when stating that individuals
should not be identified as talented or excluded from a talent development
program based on any single component. Coaches should be cautious when
attempting to predict the success of the players based on a few, simplistic data
respecting their physical characteristics, due to the complex nature of talent
and talent development2,12,13,14. Abbott and Collins6 further state that any
uni-dimensional models for talent promotion are likely to result in premature
de-selection of talented children. Inclusively, in male junior volleyball
players’ technical ability has been shown to be more relevant than
anthropometric features16, although this study concerns a very specific sample,
perhaps not representative of the elite-level.

There are some recognized limitations to our study. Firstly, due to the nature
of the data presented in the FIVB’s website, it was not possible to determine
the exact function of each player on the court. Since distinct playing roles
pose different sets of constraints, it is possible that height is more relevant
for operating at an elite-level in some game functions than in others4. In their
study with Cuban women players, Carvajal et al.7 found that there were
considerable differences in height depending on playing position. Specifically,
the setters were shorter (178.5±3.5 cm) while the middle attackers were taller
(187.1±2.5 cm) than average. A similar effect has been verified in high-level
male volleyball9. As a further example, the libero player need not be so tall as
an attacker, as was evidenced in the study of Malousaris et al.8. According to
the authors, in each sport the different playing positions may require specific
physical attributes and, therefore, warrant diverse factors contributing to
talent. A more thorough study of the height characteristics by playing function
would warrant relevant data for talent promotion.

Furthermore, the participants registered in the site did not receive equal
playing time. Some teams have registered more than twenty players each year, but
only twelve can participate in each match (recently, this was extended to
fourteen players). Therefore, our data are relevant for the composition of
national teams as a whole, but may not extend to the players that actually
participate in the matches, and does not reveal if there are significant
differences between starting players and bench players. However, it does provide
clear evidence that many shorter players have an important role to play in
elite-level women’s volleyball. Even if a shorter player is merely on the
national teams’ roster and does not make it to the court, data reveal they are
somehow important for the preparation of the team; otherwise they would not have
been selected. Some shorter players may be relevant in enhancing the quality of
training sessions and on performing specific tasks during preparation; hence,
they might be decisive in potentiating the quality of the players that actually
get to enter the court. Moreover, recent rules changes now allow each team to
use two liberos during a match. As these players are specialized in defensive
actions, height is not determinant for their performance.